crucible
by castiel in the tardis
Summary: "Everyone has their weakness, Doctor. Their blind spot. For Clara, it happened to be Mister Pink. But what about you, eh? What's your poison?" Spoilers for 8x11 (Dark Water)


**crucible **

**Summary: "Everyone has their weakness, Doctor. Their blind spot. For Clara, it happened to be Mister Pink. But what about you, eh? What's your poison?" Spoilers for 8x11 (Dark Water) **

**The Mistress and the Doctor have a chat about love and vengeance.  
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**Hinted John Simm Master/Tenth Doctor + Mistress/Twelfth Doctor **

**Maybe kinda sorta not really platonic one sided 12/Clara**

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><p>"Oh, don't act so surprised," Missy chided, stepping back to appraise the Doctor with steely eyes. "You'd have to be an idiot not to see it coming. Who else would be able to pull off something of this scale?" The Doctor recoiled away from her, his face white and arm shaking as he pushed her away. "But you were on Gallifrey... You shouldn't be here, how can you be here?"<p>

The Mistress just smiled, teeth glinting as she patted the steps near her. "Come Doctor, have a chat with me." The Doctor shook his head angrily, eyes darting furiously between the oncoming Cybermen and _her. _"No... no I have to stop this. Clara, I need Clara. Clara!" He began to yell, turning back to the Cathedral. "What have you done to her."

Missy smiled, crossing her legs. "Nothing yet. But if you keep up this attitude I can change that easily. Now come, sit. We have some talking to do." The Doctor didn't move, his breathing slow and strained. "Doctor? I don't have all day." Reluctantly, he turned back and made his way to the steps, sitting one step lower than her. "Explain." His voice is tired and choked, his mind whirling a mile a minute.

"So rude Doctor. Has our time apart affected you for the better, or for the worse?"

"Can't tell. This regeneration's been a bit wonky. Don't remember much of who I used to be. Just a lot of facts really. I attended Amelia and Rory Pond's wedding in 2011. I met Rose Tyler in the March of 2005. Now I can tell that these events mean something to me, but I just don't feel it. I remember everything, the colour, the sound and the smells, but they don't evoke emotion."

Missy leaned over and patted him on the hand. "It's just because you started a new cycle. Trust me, you'll be up and running a couple of regenerations later." The Doctor flinches away from her, looking up to meet her eyes. "What about you? How many cycles have you burned through, and how do you keep gaining them?"

The Mistress shrugged. "I don't really know. Lost track I suppose. Just like my age, I've lived so many lives I really can't remember them all. I do, however remember my previous incarnation. Sweet man, he was. Had a bit of a crush on your Tenth incarnation, I think it was the hair-"

"How did it happen?" The Doctor interjected. "Your regeneration. How did it happen?" Missy stroked her chin. "I think it was after I gave up my life force to blast Rassilon. Didn't regenerate until I ended up on Gallifrey, but the moment I got there I was gone. And Missy was born. I wanted something different, to shake it up a bit. What was more different than changing my gender? Thought it would be a lovely surprise once I saw you again. My past incarnation had more friendly ideas in mind when he planned to see you next. All that nonsense was swiftly kicked once my personality settled in.

"It's all quite confusing, isn't it? Regeneration. I've changed so many times that I don't even know whether I'm the same scared little boy who looked into the time vortex and saw a world he could own and destroy." Missy glanced down at her body. "Well, I know I'm definitely not the same little _boy_." The Doctor's gaze left hers as he looked up to see the mass of Cybermen growing, yet the crowds unaffected.

"What have you done to them?"

"Nothing. Humans have just become so horribly desensitized to these types of things. Just waiting for someone to announce that it's a publicity stunt or that someone's shooting a movie. Price of living in a world with the Doctor, I suppose. But a small price to pay in the end."

"Why did you kiss me?" The Doctor asked suddenly, averting her eyes. "I thought you said the crush died with your previous self." Missy shrugged. "To mess with you. Or maybe I'm just madly in love." She smiled, clapping her hands. "I suppose you'll never know. It's a real shame that I'll have to kill you before the end of the day. We would have had such _fun _together, you and me."

The Doctor crossed his arms. "I don't have fun anymore. I'm just focused on keeping myself and Clara alive another day, and that's good enough for me." Missy leaned over, placing her head on his shoulder, ignoring the Doctor's sudden stiffness and intake of breath. "Oh Clara. Clara Clara Clara. I heard about what she did, Doctor. How she betrayed you. All the TARDIS keys, one... by one... by one. It must have been hell for you, knowing that it was all a dream while she didn't. Knowing that if she outsmarted you, if you hadn't known you'd have been left to die with a traitor."

He shook his head. "She's not a traitor. She just... She loves him." The Doctor's lips tightened. "She loves that man so much that she would hurt me to get him back." Missy smiled, pulling the Doctor's hand into hers. "Ah yes, of course. Danny Pink, the love of Clara's life. It's all rather tragic, isn't it?" The Doctor didn't respond. The Mistress pulled herself off his shoulder, but kept a good grip on his hand, using her free one to turn his head towards hers.

"Everyone has their weakness, Doctor. Their blind spot. For Clara, it happened to be Mister Pink. But what about you, eh? What's your poison?" The Doctor shifted away. "I don't have one." Missy gave him a knowing smile. "Sure you don't. You told me yourself Doctor. All this incarnation cares about is Clara. 'My Clara, my Impossible Girl.' You love her. In what way, I won't specify out of the goodness of my heart." Missy pushed herself up, stretching her limbs with her face tilted up to the sun.

"The time is approaching Doctor, and it seems we must ready ourselves. It's been nice, this chat. Good to catch up and all that. But the time for these childish games is over now." The Mistress adjusted her hat, a coy smile on her red lips. "Let the real fun begin."

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><p><strong>AN: Oh. **

**My.**

**God.**

**I don't know if I can forgive Clara for what happened during Dark Water. I love her, I can see where she's coming from, but she has crossed the line. **

**Damn you Moffat. **

**This terribly written one shot is just textual diarrhea, and I'm sorry if you hated every minute. I just needed to get rid of all these goddamn _feelings. _I completely understand why the Twelfth Doctor tries to detach himself from them, I do. **

**JUST DON'T PRESS DELETE DANNY. I DON'T REALLY LIKE YOU BUT SAMUEL ANDERSON IS SUCH A DEAR PLEASE DON'T. **

**And that reveal. Hoping that it's really just the Rani messing with the Doctor. But then that would make this entire one shot worthless and make little to no sense. **

**Darn. **

**Anyway, thank you for sticking with me through this fic. If you like what you see, make sure to follow or favourite me so you can get an update whenever I publish something on here. If you're a fan of Arrow, I'm planning on writing an Olicity fic to dazzle everyone with in the future. So yeah, if you like the story remember to favourite or follow, if you like me remember to favourite or follow. **

**Your resident badass lil' cutie**

**- Castiel in the Tardis**


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